EthicsBite™

Chesapeake Energy:

Chesapeake’s Board of Directors named Archie Dunham, former CEO of Conoco, as their new Chairman, removing co-founder Aubrey McClendon from that role. Soon after, Dunham made it clear that Chesapeake needs to continue to sell off assets thereby raising cash. In the meantime, news surfaced that CEO McClendon may have violated anti-trust laws by allegedly sending emails related to bid prices on land for future drilling.

JPMorgan Chase:

Remember a previous post titled “Black Holes?” As predicted then, the hedge unit’s loss at JPMorgan continues to grow. Now reportedly at $ 9 BILLION-with-a-B dollars. Slightly more than the original $ 2 Billion.

News Corp:

Rupert Murdoch is apparently considering splitting News Corp. in two. The split would separate the entertainment business from the publishing business thereby cushioning shareholders who are primarily investing in the entertainment businesses from suffering the effects of the scandal going on in the publishing business. That scandal involves cell phone hacking allegations against the News of the World organization in London.  The company’s board quickly approved of Rupert’s wish. Hmmm.

Goldman Sachs:

No action against them, but the SEC is reportedly filing a civil law suit against a hedge fund manager for allegedly giving favorable treatment to some investors. Goldman was one of the names that allegedly received special treatment. The hedge fund is Harbinger Capital Partners LLC of Wall Street.

Facebook’s IPO:

The SEC opened an investigation into the NASDAQ stock exchange which was unable to effectively process the large number of trades on the stock’s opening day.

And Finally…..Madoff:

Remember Bernie? His brother Peter was planning to plead guilty while at the same time insisting that he did not know about his brother’s massive fraud. ….. sure.